Dissertation 2001

	Abstract
	Framework
	Historical Context
	Possible Uses for Ochre
	Evidence Archaeologically - South Africa
	Evidence Archaeologically - Europe/Near East
	Conclusion
	References

Clues to differences in behaviour from

Middle to Late Palaeolithic cultures include:

Upper Palaeolithic	Middle Palaeolithic
Assemblages dominated by well-designed blades for hafting.	Assemblages dominated by flakes and hafted points
Tool Kits mainly endscrapers, burins and points.	Toolkits mainly sidescrapers, denticulates and Levallois points.
More bone, antler and ivory tools as well as more objects of personal adornment and “art”.	Little bone, antler and ivory tools. No personal adornment and “art”
Sites more complex i.e. shelters are more elaborate and substantial	Less complex sites.
More sophisticated weapons such as bow and arrow and the spear thrower	Some specialisation in hunting.
Economic specialization i.e. hunting for particular game species.	Scavenging, unplanned hunting.
Economic exchange over long distances	Mostly local, not over 100km
Graves more elaborate suggesting ritual or ceremony	Graves showing some indication of ritual.

The archaeological record has provided us with a far more complex picture of the above table and, as with binary oppositions of simple and complex dichotomies, there are many overlapping areas (Fagan 1996:212-213). What needs to be accounted for is that Africans may have looked modern when Neanderthals still occupied Europe, but whether or not their behaviour was also modern is a major debate (Brooks & Potts 2000: http://nmnhwww.si.edu/anthro/outreach/anthnote/Spring00/anthnote.html). New evidence from South Africa suggests that these early hominids were behaviourally modern c. 80,000 years ago (Brooks & Potts 2000, Clark 1995).

African behavioural innovations summarised

(McBrearty & Brooks 2000:530)

It is believed that these are the beginnings of self-awareness and use of symbols, but that symbolic expression itself does not evolve until about 45,000 years ago (Clark 1995), but there is no evidence of a packaged Upper Palaeolithic behavioural pattern following the moderns as they moved into new territories. This pattern is a complicated mosaic of mini-explosions that resemble one big explosion (Shreeve 1996:269). Neurological capacity for Upper Palaeolithic behaviour seems to leak backward in time into the Middle Palaeolithic (ibid).